Chaos In Court: Massachusetts Lawyers’ Strike Frees Alleged Drug Dealers And Abusers

Four individuals with charges including drug distribution and domestic abuse were released from jail in Boston due to a six-week “work stoppage” by court-appointed public defenders, CBS reported.

Eighteen more defendants are slated for release hearings on July 9, CBS reported. They face accusations including fentanyl trafficking, assault and battery.

Boston lawyers and other attorneys statewide, engaged in a strike on public defense have left courts woefully understaffed, with 587 immediately impacted defendants uncertain as to the progress of their cases, an order from a Massachusetts Associate Justice dated July 3 shows. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court enacted the “Lavallee Protocol,” in which a court is required to dismiss defendants if they have not had an attorney for more than seven days. This led to the release of four defendants on Monday, with charges including drug distribution and domestic abuse, CBS reported.

Full-time public defenders cover about 20% of defense cases, CBS reported. The other 80% are represented by “bar advocates”— private attorneys who step out of their typical work in the private sector to represent defendants who cannot afford private defense.

Massachusetts’ court-appointed public defense attorneys are paid $65 an hour in District Courts, a rate that pales in comparison to neighboring states, according to CBS. New Hampshire offers $125, Maine $150 and Rhode Island $112 per hour. The compensation stands in stark contrast to the over $300 an hour that private defense attorneys can command.

Massachusetts Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt implemented the Lavallee Protocol on July 3rd, warning in the order that hundreds of defendants would go without representation by the end of the month.